Today, the famous chess player Vugar Gashimov would have turned 39 years old

July 24 is the birthday of the famous Azerbaijani chess player, three-time chess champion of Azerbaijan Vugar Gashimov.

BAKU.WS reminds that V.Gashimov was born on July 24, 1986 in Baku.

He represented Azerbaijan's team four times at the Chess Olympiads (2002, 2004, 2006, 2008), and was also part of our country's national team that played against the world team in Baku on May 7-9, 2009 as part of the Heydar Aliyev Cup.

In 2007, V.Gashimov won bronze in the European Team Chess Championship, and in 2009 - became European champion with the Azerbaijan team (it was Vugar who brought our team the decisive point in the last round).

Due to a conflict with the Azerbaijan Chess Federation, he was not invited to the national team to participate in the 2010 Olympiad.

During the 2011 World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia), V.Gashimov ended his competition in the quarterfinals of the tournament. At the European Chess Championship held in November of the same year in the Greek city of Porto Carras, he could not defend his championship title and finished the competition with a silver medal.

V.Gashimov died on January 11, 2014 at the University Clinic of Heidelberg in Germany, where he was being treated for a malignant brain tumor. He was buried on January 14 at the III Alley of Honor.

In April 2014, an international chess tournament was organized in Shamkir in memory of the grandmaster, and this tradition continued in subsequent years.

On July 24, 2014, a ceremony was held to unveil his tombstone, and a bronze monument was erected in honor of the chess player.

In 2016, the V.Gashimov Chess Academy opened in Baku.

President Ilham Aliyev noted in his speech that the late grandmaster made a great contribution to the development of Azerbaijani sports.